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“But that won’t happen to us, cause it’s always been a matter of trust.” - William Joel

The Perfect Spotify (A Tribute)

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Cake day: June 23rd, 2023
  • Ultragramps@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOPMtoCritical Role@lemmy.world•Excerpt Available for New Book: What Doesn't BreakEnglish
    1·
    27 days ago

    Excerpted from Critical Role: Bells Hells–What Doesn’t Break by Cassandra Khaw and Critical Role. Copyright © 2024 by Cassandra Khaw. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

    Chapter 1

    It woke not in pain, per se, but in considerable discomfort, as its body weight was supported entirely by a noose around its throat. This was its first revelation. The next was that it was suspended by said noose from the boughs of a colossal tree. The third, and perhaps the most important, epiphany was that it was surrounded by corpses, some fresher than others. Something about the sight of those bodies, bluish-­purple skin tinted green in the last light of a dying day, brought it tremendous solace.

    No, it thought to itself, even as it processed the fact that it was a thinking entity, capable of rationalization, even something as dangerous as imagination. It wasn’t the dangling cadavers that comforted it but the knowledge that something—­it wasn’t entirely sure what exactly—­was missing from that rotting tableau. That was why she—­She?

    That sounded correct. She seemed an accurate summation of that aspect of her identity, but of course that impression could be revised later. It—­she had only just arrived upon the knowledge that gender was even an applicable variable, after all. More discoveries surely awaited.

    Like her name.

    Surely, she had a name once. Just as surely as the continued knowledge of it was waiting for her in the derelict and still-unexplored corners of her mind, of which she suspected there were many. An entire warren of memories to excavate until she could recover her essence, whatever it was that once made her singularly her, from the lightless nothing. Right now, she wasn’t so much a person as an agglomeration of parts: bones, sluggishly circulating fluids, fractured cartilage, a mouth and its bitten tongue, a neck bruised to numbness, ears that ached in time with her lethargic heartbeat but only along their very tips.

    These were all indispensable constituents of a physical body, but without the context of answers to very specific questions, they were just cold meat and puddling humors. As her awareness of the noose grew further pronounced, she decided what she really wanted was someone to tell her why she’d been hung—­

    She began to weep. This surprised her. Though she couldn’t articulate a reason for this, a part of her, some dim and remote hemisphere of her revivifying brain not yet on speaking terms with language, had expected something more primordial than the brokenhearted sobs wracking her: a scream, yes, that word seemed right, something louder, something like loss made into sound, like waking up and understanding everything you’d ever loved was gone with no hope of restoration.

    She hated the rope then. She hated it for its inadequacy. Had it been better made, thicker, thinner, tied differently, she’d be dead of a broken neck and safe from this grief convulsing through her. If it had done its goddamned job, she would be with her parents. She would—­

    Oh, she thought, the word parents as illuminating as it was incendiary, a flame set to oil-drenched skin. The amniotic fugue sloughed away, and suddenly she remembered everything.

    Every detail. Every exquisite spill of shadow along the panes of her mother’s body, contorted as it was, hunched into itself in a pointless attempt at self-­preservation. Every slick of light along the naked bones of her father’s face, lending them a sacramental quality: He looked like a relic, the only thing holy in that room of nightmares. Delilah’s face. Delilah’s laughter as she brought her back just for the delight of seeing her die again on the noose. She screamed then, a shrill and desperate keening that brought no catharsis—­not with the noose still there, squeezing—­but it was loud enough at least to frighten her memories back into repression and to take her attention from the bite of the rope. As both air and memory fled, her consciousness tumbled away again, the dark rushing up to grasp her like a mother’s arms.

    There was a bird on her head.

    Specifically, it was a grackle, iridescent-­throated, its plumage almost black when it turned its head one way and a glossy patinated bronze when it turned its head the other. It was staring upside down from its perch on her skull, several strands of her hair clutched in its beak, its expression peculiarly aggrieved, as if it had been interrupted during a vital errand and was now forced to waste time it never had.

    She studied it with some embarrassment. It occurred to her that the grackle might have thought of her as a rich trove of material and meat, a once-­in-­a-­lifetime surfeit of everything its instincts ever coveted. Up until the point at which she had the audacity to wake up and stare at the bird, bleary-­eyed, impudently un-­dead.

    Or undead, as the case was.

    Her thoughts were a gray slurry not unlike filthy bathwater. Through the murk, she could see the vague silhouette of her memories, occulted for the moment, but theoretically accessible. Theoretically because for some ineffable reason, even the thought of exploring those recollections made her want to die as many times as was necessary to escape them permanently. Regardless, she was sure of one thing: She was neither all the way dead nor anywhere approaching respectably alive. (A small part of her wondered then if she could spare the grackle the feast of an eyeball, but she laid such musings down immediately after a sudden panic burbled up in her. Whoever she was before, she’d been a person subjected to repeated, unwanted sacrifice.)

    But how had she become undead—­

    No, no, no. She tamped down her curiosity, the initial panic beginning to metastasize into a phobic reaction. Whatever had happened before, whatever had killed her, that needed to live elsewhere, preferably six feet under her immediate awareness.

    The grackle saved her from further philosophizing by removing, with considerable ceremony, another strand of her hair.

    “Ow,” she croaked.

    In answer, the grackle spat out a truly unlovely noise, a sound like disintegrating machinery, strangled and rusted, like hinges tearing loose; a din so peculiar, so cacophonous that it surprised a laugh from her. Not a loud one. She didn’t yet have the capacity for such. But it was laughter, and it was unencumbered by hurt, and while it wasn’t an instantaneous cure-­all, it felt like a reminder that so long as consciousness persisted, there was hope for . . . well, she wasn’t sure what, but something, for sure.

    So now she had hope, even if it was a frail and rudderless hope, and a bird astride her head. Given the circumstances, this was absolutely an improvement.

    The grackle bugled metallically at her again, an atonal medley of whistles and energetic readleaks, still unimpressed, dancing an impatient jig in her hair. Perhaps it had the right idea. The bird, in its gorgeous weirdness, seemed wholly unhaunted: at peace with itself, content to do nothing but croak and mutter and do bird things. If she were to follow its example, she might learn that ease too.

    First, though. First, she needed to sit up.

    Which she did with surprising quickness, only to topple over into a jumble of decayed and still-decaying limbs. Someone had placed her at the very top of a neatly stacked pyramid of bodies. Unfortunately for the organizer, the momentum of her collapse resulted in a chain reaction: corpses sliding out of place, dragging their peers down, bones and body parts akimbo, with the occasional excretion of some stodgy and unmentionable fluid whenever a stray elbow or knee palpated a festering organ the wrong way. It became a veritable stew, pouring recklessly out of the back of the overlarge wagon. Curtains of black flies hung indignantly in the air. The grackle left with an exasperated shriek.

    When the chaos ended, she was worked into the middle of that putrid tangle, half of her upper torso jutting out from the mass, a leg pinned by an utter goliath of a man, his bare torso brambled with crude stitches; he’d been sewn together, she realized, from at least a half dozen people, if she were to go by skin tone alone. His—­their?—­face was angled away, and she recognized that as a mercy. Something about the thought of gazing onto its countenance frightened her grotesquely, although she’d be hard put to explain why. She knew only that she was afraid and that she needed—­why?—­nonetheless to look—­I can’t, please, no—­onto its face, regardless of what came after. There was an obligation here, a profound duty she could not shirk. It might even be the reason why she was conscious now. She did not know. All she knew was that she owed—­no, no, no, please, no—­that hideous carcass the terrible kindness of being acknowledged.

    Worming loose, she crawled over to it on her hands and knees. She took the thing’s head in her hands, gently rotating its skull until she looked fully on its visage.

    Except the sight wouldn’t take.

  • Ultragramps@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOPMtoCritical Role@lemmy.world•[Spoilers C3E105] Episode DiscussionEnglish
    0·
    1 month ago
    • 02:40:40 Fan Art Moment Braius’s public armor outfitting while being stared at by Highbearer Vord.
    • 02:41:33 “And I walk away.” (C1 Vax catchphrase)
    • 02:45:52 Orym decides to meet Dorian’s father
      Imogen:“Stone cold fox.”
      Fearne:“Your dad’s hot.”
      Dorian:“He’s dad and he’s daddy.”
    • 02:49:40 Ashton:“…and when you came back, I could see that little stone in your chest getting hard and mean and I thought I’d be [happy to see it, but I’m not]. Stay soft. We need it. We’ve lost our ‘soft’…”
    • 02:51:32 Dorian:“You did great.”
      Ashton:“Fuck you.”
    • 02:53:26 Imogen updates Keyleth on:
      • the vision sent by Liliana Temult
      • the struggles of putting family at such risk
      • the powerful forces that can potentially take over
    • 02:57:46 Keyleth confesses that she has not actually notified the rest of Vox Machina about the mission.
      Grogory:“I’m down to clown!”
    • 02:58:55 Fan Art Moment Exhausted and Exalted (Fire Elemental) Fearne leaning and drooling lava and breathing hot steam.
    • 03:00:30 Flashbacks to the “Keyleth Goldfish Incident”
    • 03:02:25 Matt employs DM Hedfuckery Trick #58008 “Unexplained Dice Rolls”
    • 03:03:45 Resources include Nanna Morri and even Ashton’s former group, The Nobodies (comprised of the other orphans adopted by the Greymoore Estate).
    • 03:07:43 Liam was looking at a different character that had a higher Perception roll than Orym, who is min/maxed in that ability.
    • 03:10:46 Guard:“Perhaps, one day, the words will find your mouth.”
    • 03:12:33 Bright Queen trolls Chetney hard
    • 03:13:36 Liam:“The BQILF”
    • 03:14:27 BQ:“You travel with one who is themselves a rift between many contradictions. The one you call Ashton. We are very interested in who or what they are and what they’re capable of. If you could return to us when this is done with as much information, or a means of bringing them under our control, there are a great many rewards that could await such an ambitious chairman.”
    • 03:17:09 Travis:“I’m outside the Zone of Truth, right?”
      Matt:“Correct.”
      Chetney:“Yeah! I was like yeah, bitch!”
      Laura:“I said biiitch.”
    • 03:17:26 No Regerts
    • 03:21:56 The Bright Queen explains to Ashton that his condition can destroy him or controlled with practice.
    • 03:22:31 Laura’s dice stack falls
    • 03:23:02 BQ:“I am slightly curious and mildly concerned that one of the heroes we’re sending to be the savior of our entire existence is just beginning a path of self-discovery.”
    • 03:25:54 Waylon’s tour
    • 03:30:46 Ashley waves her pencil wand and knocks over Robbie’s dice stack
      Robbie:“I was listening to lore.”
      Matt:“I’m glad somebody was, cuz otherwise I’m just slappin’ my dick in the wind here.”
    • 03:34:47 Fearne:“What’s this coding mean?”
    • 03:36:43 Chetney’s egg from the Oblivion Edition “That which is most precious”
    • 03:38:10 Chetney:(Yoda voice)“There is another…(Chetney voice)This chair is from my T.A.L.O. (Take a load off) collection.”
    • 03:39:36 At the potential offer of an apprenticeship with Chetney, Waylon faints.
    • 03:41:45 POP-Con
    • 03:44:39 Waylon:“You were wasted under Ultgar.”
    • 03:48:56 Legendary pièce de résistance
    • 03:50:04 Chetney must save POP-Con (but keeps calling his biggest fan ‘Wayland’)
    • 03:51:40 Braius:“I would love a signed POP. Don’t sign my name. I might put it on D&Dbay.”
  • Ultragramps@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOPMtoCritical Role@lemmy.world•[Spoilers C3E105] Episode DiscussionEnglish
    0·
    1 month ago

    ♪Episode Song References♪

    ᕕ( ᐛ)ᕗ

    Highlights

    • 00:00:03 “A bunch of dirty-ass voice actors”
    • 00:03:44 “New York City?!”
    • 00:05:22 Laura:“It’s giving ‘reading a book by a fireplace’ or ‘fucking on a pile of money’.”
    • 00:12:20 Ludinus has sent one of his Simulacrum copies to meet with Sorrowlord Zathuda to broker a deal with the Unseelie Court at The Shrine of Gilded Gifts in the Amethyst Gulch Sierras (a place Fearne knows of in the Fae Realm). The Weave Mind were known to have left the moon briefly and then returned to Exandria (for the terraforming shabazzle around the Malleus Key). Ludinus is also asking Liliana to help with the broadcast of the vision in the Aeorian orb.
    • 00:20:02 Chetney’s “Elvish” LotR reference
    • 00:20:24 Fearne’s successful History Check reveals a Seelie community called the Pravenier (translates to Kaleidoscopic Tapestry)) abandoning their settlement due to a mass poisoning event. The ruins of the settlement have been reclaimed by nature and the elements and are considered haunted.
    • 00:21:20 Braius:“Fakie?”
    • 00:22:21 Chetney:“It’s a trap!”
    • 00:23:12 Taliesin:“Snoopy Snow Clones.”
    • 00:24:27 Everybody look up.
    • 00:27:57 Chet suggests tasking Ira Wendigoth (Hot spider?) with foiling the broadcast.
    • 00:34:16 The silver dragon is not on top of the Platinum Sanctuary anymore
    • 00:36:14 Travis:“I’ve got my faith in you and my finger.”
      Liam:“That’s a big finger.”
      Robbie:“Don’t underestimate me.”
    • 00:36:47 The Back Door and Your Mom
    • 00:37:07 Can’t give up your source
    • 00:38:11 Matt:“It’s like a Comic-Con show floor in here almost…Smells a little better.”
    • 00:39:00 Liam rolls a Nat20 on a History Check (totaling 32).
      Taliesin:“What symbol is that?”
      Liam:“That’s a pie” (naughty dice)
      Robbie:“That is the whole pie.”
      Taliesin:“So it is.”
      Liam:“Now I want pie… Reading is Fundamental!”
      Whispers
    • 00:40:34 Fan Art Moment Chetney rocking the monocle “like the monopoly guy just rolled out of bed”
    • 00:43:15 Orym:“Shut up, baby, I know it.”
    • 00:45:55 Orym attempts to point out a blue-skinned stranger to Dorian, but they vanish into the crowd a moment too soon.
    • 00:48:40 Chetney’s See Invisibility spots massive platinum security golems and the silver dragon.
    • 00:50:34 The dragon briefly meets Dorian’s gaze and he loses some bladder control.
    • 00:52:23 Flamespeaker Cerkonos, Planar Guardian and Headmaster of the Fire Ashari in Pyrah (voiced by Robbie in LoVM!):“The crisis orbs have been set alight and we came to witness.”
    • 00:52:50 Ophera, High Hierophant of the Temple of the Wildmother:“With the echoes of the Solstice still dangling and and twisting our world’s balance, we fight to keep order. The Ruby Vanguard is obscured in motion. Ludinus Da’leth vanished within his plots, and a fortress manifested around the bridge that anchors the Moon of Ill Omen to our tides. We the righteous peoples of Exandria struggle to get our footing. We need to reclaim our ground and shift that power, and time is absolutely of the essence. A number of you have taken this evening to gather your thoughts and present means of putting us in a position of power and control. Now is the time to make this presence known.”
    • 00:54:04 Vex’ahlia shuts down Zhafe Uludon from spouting more Cerberus Assembly propaganda.
    • 00:58:12 Athudashionus, the Ancient Silver Dragon, Guardian of the Platinum Sanctuary casts Zone of Truth over the entire Platinum Sanctuary.
    • 01:02:20 Long live Bolo
    • 01:03:08 Vex’ahlia:“…the Slayer’s Take, the Onyx Edge, the Stubborn Stock, the Flames Within, and any and all mercenary companies that are available and willing. The intent is, whether by cunning or force, to deliver the legends known as Vox Machina to the Malleus Key…I put forth my recommendation for the Mighty Nein of Wildemount to be set to this task…”
    • 01:07:00 Laura:“I say we let em go.”
    • 01:08:40 Imogen:“Everyone look cool.”
    • 01:10:06 Orym:“Time is short.”
      Braius:(under his breath)“And so am I…”
      Liam:“There’s a lot of halflings in this room, you guys. Be careful.”
    • 01:11:55 Lock it up, Ashton
    • 01:14:41 Braius:“…and we have a guy who makes chairs.”
    • 01:15:07 Liam:“I pull out Seedling like the Sword of Fucking Omens…”
    • 01:16:44 Taliesin:“Ooh, fancy pants.”
    • 01:18:03 Pop Quiz, Hotshot “Which of the great saints of the Platinum Dragon do you walk the path of?”
      Taliesin:“What’s the Platinum Dragon’s mother’s name?”
    • 01:22:27 Travis:“Chicken shit. Do it.”
    • 01:24:25 Ophera:"As we’ve seen, our great Mother is with us and we have the holiness of the Platinum Dragon amongst us. Yet there are dark magics put upon this. A necromantic bent that is sent to correspond with the light of holiness. Would you please assure us? How can we expect and hope that you will stay on the path of the righteous as well?
    • 01:27:10 “The Coven of the Veil hears her words, and we know this to be true. For what does light do but cast a shadow? They are in tandem, or should be. It would be foolish to think one should exist without the other. It’s about the balance, and there is much light in this group. We are comforted that a shadow walks among them and in step.”
    • 01:31:18 “I just pull my tits out.”
    • 01:37:47 Dorian’s turn to impress.
    • 01:41:25 Find Greater Steed summons an equine dragon named Coriolis.
    • 01:44:25 Chetney:“I have walked Exandria for centuries. I remember Zan Tal’dorei. I remember Errevon the Rimelord. I have seen the horror that befall this land and how people are strong enough to rise up and rebuild…”
    • 01:46:36 Liam:“You think you’re at a flea market?”
    • 01:48:10 Official titles bestowed upon the group:
      • Lady Fearne Calloway, Fae Scion of the Ancient Flame
      • Laudna, Veil Mistress of the Shadow Tree
      • Ashton the Reforged, Hammer of Paradox
      • Chetney Pock O’Pea, High Hunter and Lupine Paragon
      • Dorian Storm, Master Muse and Son of the Wind
      • Imogen Temult, Exaltant Hope of the Red Storm
      • Orym of the Air Ashari, Savior Blade of the Tempest
      • Braius Doomseed, Nascent Might of the Platinum’s Call
    • 01:49:39 Producer:“Ah!”
    • 01:53:45 “The Young Dignitary” (Scalebearer Waylon Amaredda) from the LoVM animated series makes a cameo with Chetney and Dorian’s father, Zeru Wyvernwind appears.

    INTERMISSION

    Amongst the crowded exodus from the Platinum Dragon Sanctuary (here atop the Heaven’s Stair Mountain in the Silver Talon’s Reach), amongst the chaos, Dorian Storm has turned to see the sight of his father, the first time in some time.

    • 02:12:03 Dorian:“I’m not so certain that when you took your sabbatical as a youth, you kept your name? Your proper name in the world.”
    • 02:12:28 The loss of Cyrus
    • 02:13:23 Zdubs:“…We have, as you know, quite historical tethers with Zephrah. (Location of the city of the Air Ashari and the entrance to the elemental Plane of Air)”
    • 02:20:32 Dorian:“I promise. I will come home.”
    • 02:22:02 Score one ceremonial blade from Papa.
    Gambolcleft, the Vortex Blade

    (+3 to Attack/Damage)
    Gain Bardic Inspiration on any roll above 18
    Extra damage from Blade Flourish is doubled
    Ability: On a successful attack, the wielder can move 15ft and attack again at disadvantage. This effect can chain as long as attacks succeed.

    • 02:24:03 Dorian:“Here, a drunk old man who died while pissing, gave this to me.”
    • 02:26:09 Waylon is Exandria’s biggest collector and fan of Chetney’s woodworking
    • 02:27:24 Chetney:“…I have interactions like this all the time…”
      Laura:“Totally heard ‘I have an erection’. Right?”
      Liam:“Heard it, too.”
    • 02:29:09 Waylon:“…there are Dozens of us.”
    • 02:33:12 Braius tells his story to Highbearer Vord with some back up from Pike Trickfoot
    • 02:38:46 Upon successfully Persuadeing the Highbearer, Braius is granted magic armor.
    Truthbearer

    (+2 AC)
    The fabled plate of Uthor Vandrock “the Silvered Star”, one of the kindest and most noble warriors of the Platinum Dragon
    Adds 30HP to successful Lay on Hands
    Gives disadvantage to melee attackers

    (continued)

  • Ultragramps@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOPMtoCritical Role@lemmy.world•[Spoilers C3E104] Episode DiscussionEnglish
    1·
    1 month ago
    • 04:11:05 Lore Drop Bright Queen:“My people were once cast from the light and climbed to return to it. I was there at the end of the Calamity when we rose above the shadows the Spider Queen threw us in. We walk now in the path of the Luxon, progenitor of all light and life. What Ludinus, sworn enemy of the Dynasty, wishes to do would send echoes that spiral out that would leave us in the most dangerous places of despair, so while I do not (and we do not) ascribe to the worship of your temples, we do acknowledge the mutual alliance we have forged and should maintain.”
    • 04:14:33 Lady Vex’ahlia is bae and she confirms the three primary targets:
      • The Malleus Key/Bloody Bridge destruction
      • The Weave Mind
      • Ludinus and his minions
    • 04:16:39 Keyleth:“I might know a few old legends who might be up for joining an assault on the fortress.”
      Robbie’s reaction
    • 04:18:21 Allura:“I may have a strike team to focus on the Weave Mind…”
    • 04:18:57 Groon explains at least one Ruidusborn will be needed to traverse the innermost seal of Ruidus, the Hallowed Cage.
    • 04:22:19 Vex’ahlia:“Sorry, it’s a-- I’m a parent.”
    • 04:25:34 BQ:“You shouldn’t be.”
    • 04:26:47 Groon:“Are you ready to break a castle?”
    • 04:27:24 Allura:“Onward to the fate of tomorrow and the end of the world.”
    • 04:29:33 Imogen’s vision
    • 04:31:55 Robbie:“The king never kills the jesters, let’s go.”
  • Ultragramps@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOPMtoCritical Role@lemmy.world•[Spoilers C3E104] Episode DiscussionEnglish
    1·
    1 month ago

    Updated List of Elaborate Titles and Major Names in the Platinum Sanctuary

    • Leylas Kryn, Empress of the Kryn Dynasty, called The Bright Queen (Essek was known as her Shadowhand)
    • Lord Zeddan Graf, Emissary of the Dwendalian Empire (fierce rival of the Cerberus Assembly and it’s Archmage of Diplomatic Union, Athesias Uludan)
    • Zhafe Uludan, Marquis of The Clovis Concord (also Ambassador for the Cerberus Assembly)
    • Gavis Aranda, the lone member of the Chandei Quorum permitted to be a representative in public, we also know Orlana Seshadri is a member.
    • Galtheid (Vincent-Price-lookin-mufugga) of the Ember Vigil, Archmage of Sruwargas(capital city of Taloned Highlands)
    • Yudala Fon, High Curator of the Cobalt Soul (main rivalry with a corrupt member of the Dwendalian court, Kon Bruda, helped expose Trent Ikithon, and has a secret unnamed spy retinue for the Cobalt Soul)
    • The Holy Curator, High Priest of The Crown of Erathis (Temple of Erathis in The Quadroads (the central district of Vasselheim)), leader of The Holy Paramours
    • Mythtaker Qi Mendozi
    • Arcanist Allura Vysoren of the Tal’Dorei Council and Arcana Pansophical
    • Lady Kima, Paladin of Bahamut, and Disciple to Highbearer Vord (hence why she’s known as Kima of Vord)
    • Guardian Tofor Brotoras of the Tal’Dorei Council, General of the forces of Vasselheim
    • Keyleth of the Air Ashari, member of the Tal’Dorei Council, Voice of the Tempest
    • Lady Vex’ahlia de Rolo, member of the Tal’Dorei Council, Grand Purveyor of the Grey Hunt
    • Grogory “Grog” Strongjaw, Grand Poobah De-Doink of all This and That, One of the Masters of Whitestone
  • Ultragramps@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOPMtoCritical Role@lemmy.world•[Spoilers C3E104] Episode DiscussionEnglish
    1·
    1 month ago
    • 01:40:00 Keyleth’s God Lore Drop The Dawnfather, the great god of the sun, the glory of daylight, watches over us like a stern paternal general. I’ve met him. He’s a peach. The Matron is a challenged but necessary, lonely figure. The Everlight, a once-fallen god that sees the best in those that maybe don’t deserve it, but is a beacon of redemption in this world. The Moonweaver, great goddess of illusion shadow, trysts, hidden love, beauty in that regard. The Arch Heart, the god of arcana and art and creation, the one who blessed us mortals with the ability to manifest arcane spellcraft outside of the gods’ will and gifts…
      …but if there is any that I feel closest to, we stand in her realm…This is the Birthheart. The Wildmother watches over all that is natural, has taken on and lives with and is guardian to the spirits of nature that existed before she even arrived…The Eidolons, the natural nature spirits that you saw in the cultures of Issylra (beyond the religious influences of the temples of Vasselheim or Othanzia) worship and live alongside (that you’ve heard existed here before the gods’ arrival)… It is rumored in some of those spaces that (before the gods came) life was a cycle of rebirth. The soul, upon death, would return to the world to be reborn into some other form; the afterlife did not exist.
    • 01:40:44 The sound engineers remember why they love Laura as she accidentally kicks a dice storage container while saying “shit” multiple times.
    • 01:43:15 Imogen:“Why is your butt glowing?”
      Ashton:“You should answer that.”
    • 01:46:04 “Laura Bailey”
    • 01:46:54 Imogen:“What if you just touch the tip on it.”
      Orym:“You want me to find a knot to put it in?”
      Chetney:“Wood can be very inviting.”
      Dorian:“What’s real and what is innuendo?”
      Matt:(grinning)“That’s always the question.”
    • 01:47:52 Liam:“I’m gonna fuck that tree.”
      Laura:(hype voice)“I wanna see you fuck that tree!”
    • 01:50:08 Orym communes with the Wildmother.
    • 01:50:42 Liam:“My name’s Andreas, I’m a rhino-man. I work for, I can’t say who.”
      Sam:“I like him.”
      Taliesin:“Rocksteady?”

    INTERMISSION

    The rest of you watch Orym cocooned against the exterior of the Birthheart. As your bodies lurch to protect, Keyleth puts a hand up, silently acknowledging to just let it happen.
    Orym, as the warm sensation of the surrounding branches and vines and flowers and grasses engulf you, you begin to hear the sounds of nature around you (the natural landscape, like an evening amongst the densest of bog forests, the sound of wind rustling through tree boughs) and then eventually you feel the vines pull back from you. As it does, you are standing in a beautiful, moonlit glade, soft white light beams piercing through numerous points in this clustered canopy of massive majestic tri-pointed leaves. The sense of scale is challenging your perspective. You feel so small, and the leaves look so large in comparison. You feel big until you look down at yourself and you are made of leaves. Your skin is green and veined with leaves protruding from your fingers, from your shoulders, no armor, no weapons. You are just as nude as the day is long, but like you had grown from a bud.
    Which you did.
    You look around, the pullback of nature around you are massive rose petals, like a massive flower had opened up that you had emerged from. Here you stand yourself, but different. You take a step beyond the bud and as your foot touches the ground, you can feel the breath and whisper of the forest around you. When you inhale, everything around you inhales with you and welcomes you. You take a second step. You hear the chirping of birds.
    The creaking sound of the tree and the wind gets louder, the vines begin to unravel from above. The canopy itself seems to expand, grow more dense. The white moonlight begins to dissipate as it’s clustered and instead a golden, sourceless light begins to fill this glade; like a golden dusk color just as the sun begins to disappear beyond the horizon. As these branches begin to expand and lower, you watch as they pull open. From them emerges a face, a beautiful, welcoming smile. Earthen brown skin, gentle golden eyes, the leaves and canopy itself the hair that continues to tumble and curl around as it comes down to you and meets your gaze. So massive to where you felt you’d grown yourself from a larger flower, now you feel like you grew from a regular flower. You are so small and she is so encompassing. There is no fear, just awe. Her smile is a wordless, touch-less hug.

    • 02:17:27 Orym spills the tea on Ludinus to the Wildmother
    • 02:21:11 Travis makes the spooky Jason Vorheis noise
    • 02:25:49 Orym receives a vision of the Wildmother’s memory of Predathos being a fallen star that caused two of her fellow primal deities to vanish when touched. The land and other elements envelop the island and launch it into the sky with the screams of the other prisoners heard from within as it travels away.
    • 02:32:48 Orym:“I say this with an open heart. I know you all to be inherently flawed, like me, and all the children that love this world as much as you. Whatever comes next, please let the garden grow.”
    • 02:35:07 Will appears
    • 02:40:38 Matt:“The city where the star landed was encased within the sealing stone. An entire civilization locked away with the entity. After the Founding but before the Schism.”
    • 02:44:24 Chet hunts for some Birthheart wood
    • 02:47:10 Orym’s sword upgraded to be known as a Relic of the Red Solstice (New hotness version of Vestiges of Divergence)
    • 02:49:26 Laura’s mind is perma-guttered this episode
    • 02:59:06 Imogen tells Dorian about the alternate path to Ruidus
    • 03:02:53 Laudna worries that the Weavemind is already terraforming Exandria and that destroying the bridge might no longer be an actionable goal.
    • 03:10:59 Ashton says artists are fucked up. Braius and Chetney take offense.
    • 03:17:03 Liam:“At Dawn, We Plan…I like the idea of hitting it from the back door up top.”
    • 03:19:09 Dorian:“Don’t get me wrong, I’m used to it.”
    • 03:19:34 Braius:“If you have doubts, just know that I was hand-selected by the King of Devils and you all, aligned with me, are serving his will. So you have a purpose.”
    • 03:20:03 Braius:“We could do acid.”
      Ashton:“Are you dropping or cubes?”
      Braius:“The kind that burns you.”
    • 03:22:31 Imogen:“You just really want to play Spin the Bottle, don’t you?”
      Fearne:“Yeah, cuz I think it’s hilarious.”
      Travis:“We’re in a tree!”
      Ashley:“Playin’ D&D Spin the Bottle.”
    • 03:23:20 Braius:“Why don’t we just skip the Zone of Truth and just make out?”
      Dorian:(nodding)“This is how the fate of the world should be decided.”
    • 03:24:45 The bouncy D20 makes an appearance
    • 03:25:09 Imogen:“So if you beat it, you can lie?”
      Braius:“I think so.”
      Travis:“Better start beatin’ it.”
    • 03:27:29 Braius’ bottle spin lands on Imogen. Laudna wants to know what it’s like. “Does he have weird breath? Does it smell like grass?”
      Sam:“Performance check?”
      Matt:(giving up)“Sure.”
    • 03:33:14 Fearne spins and hits Chetney
    • 03:35:55 Imogen:“Well then, I’ll say it now. If I put you all at harm, do what it takes to defeat me…Do you want to spin the bottle, Dorian?”
    • 03:36:36 Dorian spins and hits Chetney and also beats him on the performance check.
      “If you didn’t smell like cedar and chestnuts!”
      Doran pulls away, grits his teeth and says,“I fucking knew it.”
      Chetney:(dazed)“He is royalty.” Liam:“In all of history, there’ve been five great kisses…that kiss topped em all.”
    • 03:38:26 Laudna’s question about Dorian’s deceased brother Cyrus brings some more vibe whiplash.
    • 03:39:38 Dorian:“I don’t know my place in all this sometimes and sometimes the way I feel feels unimportant. But that’s okay. I’ve felt like that most of my life. But when I’m with you I feel important. I can’t believe you’ve been thinking about that at all with all that’s going on. I’ve gotten really good at “putting my feelings where they should go” for the greater good…but it doesn’t mean I don’t feel them. It doesn’t mean I don’t think about them…allow me to honor his memory by doing what is right, because I know that’s what he would do. The only thing that scares me is that I don’t know what’s right or wrong anymore, and there’s no one here to guide us.”
    • 03:43:17 To Cyrus
      Chetney:“You want some of this Birthheart dog? I put some shavings in there, and fuckin’ seein’ some shit.”
    • 03:44:18 Laudna spins and lands on Orym. Performance checks 3 (Orym) and 2 (Laudna)
    • 03:46:05 Some forced narrative bonding with a make out session between Fearne and Ashton. Just add alcohol.
    • 03:51:09 As we learn Dorian isn’t asleep, Sam makes a furious masturbation noise while Ashley suggests tear lube. Friendship goals.
    • 03:56:50 Evoroa:“So the Prime Pillar of Ruidus itself is the remains of Predathos’ original form when sealed. The glass itself is extremely resilient against both physical excavation and magical alteration. What we use as tools are either flecks that have come free from the overall interior structure or spent a long time trying to chip away and eventually make. Once it’s left the primary glass vein structure of the moon, it becomes more brittle and workable, but before then it is extremely hardy.” The innermost and toughest glass prison is called the Hallowed Cage.
    • 04:00:44 Keyleth relays info on the terraformed fortress around the Malleus Key. Significant Ruidian presence led by The Sunder King, Ozo Kruth
    • 04:07:07 Dorian suggests that “without them (the Weave Mind), perhaps your people could be compelled by hope.”
    • 04:09:43 The Bright Queen catches Chetney’s mention of another passage to Ruidus and Keyleth fills in the location on Issylra.

    (continued)

  • Ultragramps@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOPMtoCritical Role@lemmy.world•[Spoilers C3E104] Episode DiscussionEnglish
    1·
    1 month ago

    ♪Episode Song References♪ (Rough Draft)

    ᕕ( ᐛ)ᕗ

    Highlights

    • 00:13:56 Fan Art Moment Bell’s Hells in the great meeting of Exandria
    • 00:14:14 Matthew Mercer Voice Magic! Possible list (in order of introduction):
      Kima:“we must assemble our communal forces!..”
      ???:“The army is already scattered at home…”
      Allura:“We understand the discomfort of such arcana…”
      ???:“We have unlikely powers…allies from darker places and factions. Chosen warriors of the Betrayers who have sworn themselves to the cause.”
      Bright Queen:“Absolutely NOT!”
      Older woman:“We have seen firsthand what their alien warriors can 1) diminish some of our protective magics and 2) certain elite soldiers can prevent restorative magic altogether…”
      Galtheid (Vincent-Price-lookin-mufugga) of the Ember Vigil, Archmage of Sruwargas(capiital city of Taloned Highlands):“The ever-tangled mess of the Solstice continues to play stress upon the Trellis of Ley Lines, threatening an imminent unraveling of our world’s magic as long as that Bloody Bridge continues.”
    Apex War Lore

    a years-long conflict between the Stratos Throne of the Taloned Highlands and the Court of the Lambent Path of Aeshanadoor. Episode 1 of Campaign 3 begins with Matt giving a brief history of Marquet.

    Gavis Aranda:“…we are still just discovering the insidious depths of Ludinus’ influence…”

    Gavis Aranda

    The lone member of the Chandei Quorum permitted to appear in public, we also know Orlana Seshadri is a member.

    ???(loud, older male):“Matters at home must be finished or held. For the window of time to act directly closes imperceptibly soon.”
    Lord Zeddan Graf, Emissary of the Dwendalian Empire (fierce rival of the Cerberus Assembly and it’s leader, Athesias Uludan):“what assurances do we have…”

    • 00:18:57 Ashton spills the beans and a magic earthquake starts building mountains around the Malleus Key.
    • 00:23:03 Keyleth:“We need. To work. Together. United. NOW!”
      J’mon Sa Ord(A.K.A. Devo’ssa, an ancient brass dragon), ruler of AnkHarel (central city in Marquet):“The Voice of the Tempest is correct and Ank’Harel is in agreement.”
      Zhafe Uludan, Marquis of The Clovis Concord (also Ambassador for the Cerberus Assembly):“The Concord agrees and commits the majority of our non-naval forces to helping [kill all the moon creatures]”
    • 00:24:25 Yudala Fon, High Curator of the Cobalt Soul (main rivalry with a corrupt member of the Dwendalian court, Kon Bruda, helped expose Trent Ikithon, and has a secret unnamed spy retinue for the Cobalt Soul):“People? They are godless creatures born in the red shadow of the god eater!”
      Leylas Kryn, Empress of the Kryn Dynasty (Essek was known as her Shadowhand):“How can we be certain that these denizens of Ruidus aren’t all bent on our destruction? You speak of certainties and perspectives none of us could possibly know.”
    • 00:25:56 Laudna spots a hooded figure in Keyleth’s Ashari entourage as Evoroa.
    • 00:26:32 Keyleth refers to Bell’s Hells as The Chosen Heroes".
    • 00:27:57 Braius detects ‘a handful of celestials’ (aw shit, are the gods here?)
    • 00:28:48 Arguments in defense of innocents on Ruidus
    • 00:29:22 Laura misnames the Ruidian nickname for the planet of Exandria (The Blue Promise) as “The Blue Dream” which is a popular strain of cannabis.
    • 00:32:29 Laudna"No, really. It’s going to be quite divisive."
    • 00:34:04 The Holy Curator, High Priest of The Crown of Erathis (Temple of Erathis in The Quadroads (the central district of Vasselheim)), leader of The Holy Paramours:“Historically, we know the gods worked together to destroy the city of Aeor because it needed to be destroyed. Itself marked the height of mortal arrogance and misuse of the knowledge and power it was granted. It is a cautionary tale (the Age of Arcanum) and it’s end.”
    • 00:34:14 Ashton starts talkin shit.
    • 00:35:18 Braius casually shoehorns his backstory into the conversation:“In times of great trauma, even purely faithful can fall from the path and make alliances with unholy or terrible entities…”
    • 00:38:12 Evoroa:“Hello everyone…”
      Fearne:(bff hype squad)“Woo!”
      Evoroa explains that the Reiloran overlords plan to spread their mind control to Exandria.
    • 00:43:10 Well-dressed gentleman wearing many rings (with the triple diamond of the Cerberus Assembly on his chest)
    • 00:44:54 Highbearer Vord calls for the meeting to adjourn until the next day when At Dawn, We Plan!.
    • 00:46:15 Chetney:“Those hooves can kick.”
      Fearne:“Yeah they can.” (grunts)
    • 00:47:13 Marisha enjoying Matt’s portrayal of Keyleth and seeing elements of herself in Keyleth’s frustration with “making a pitch.”
    • 00:49:59 The huge silver dragon “statue” moves.
    • 00:52:40 Fan Art Moment Chetney’s little open hand on Grog’s open Titanstone Knuckles
    • 00:53:53 Fearne’s Primordial essence causes a heat reaction with the Titanstone Knuckles
    • 00:54:16 Grog:“My name? Well, it’s kind of a legendary title, really. Grand Poobah De-Doink of all This and That, One of the Masters of Whitestone.”
    • 00:56:51 Croissants (Crescent (moon) Rolls) aren’t selling well these days. Har!
      Marisha:“It’s like when people didn’t want to buy Coronas during Covid.”
      Liam:“We don’t want your moon bread, only freedom bread.”
    • 00:57:59 Sam’s body movements with his head turns like one of The Muppets
    • 00:59:26 Pike:“Buddies! Not tonight.”
    • 01:02:30 Imogen:“Yeah. He saved us all.”
      Braius:“Fuck that guy.”
    • 01:02:50 Vex’ahlia:“…though she’s more with the Pansophical.”
      Imogen:“She has her pants off?”
    • 01:05:39 Laudna:“He’s not talking to you, Pike. He’s talking to the pretty one. With the really great boobs.”
      Chetney:“I’m sorry, excuse me.” (moves Pike to the side)
    • 01:06:58 Fan Art Moment Laudna’s enthusiastic news about Delilah’s entrapment oblivious to her undead boob exposed
    • 01:09:16 Ashley appreciates Travis’ tiny farts
    • 01:09:39 Matt:“You begin to push inward towards the darkness…”
      Laura is already giggling.
      Liam:“Nice.”
    • 01:13:35 Chetney:“That Holy Curator, that fuckin nimrod was ears-closed to anything that we’re going to have to say.”
      Ashton:“At least he’s saying what he thinks.”
      (please don’t tell me there are going to be hats and flags…)
    • 01:17:18 Welcome to the Birthheart
    • 01:28:43 Keyleth:“Having actually been to the Hells myself…”
      Braius perks up.
      Keyleth:“I’m uncertain I’d throw in with any of that lot, to be honest.”
      Braius perks down. “You’ve been to all the Hells? I mean, there’s a few Hells.”
    • 01:30:45 Keyleth’s humblebrag about talking to gods
    • 01:31:37 Marisha:“It’s my character, I can bully her if I want to.”
    • 01:34:52 Keyleth:“The number of historical mysteries that have been buried and locked into the vaults under this city is likely endless.”
    • 01:36:15 Lore Drop Keyleth informs the group about the ascension of Vecna
    • 01:39:30 Dorian:“See, now I’m beginning to understand why Ludinus thinks that if he shows this orb to the world, they’ll side against the gods. You only mentioned three in the last 20 minutes, and one of them you hate, and the other almost brought the end of the world…the gods seem like trouble.”
      Orym:“If you’re looking for the black & white here, you’re not going to find it.”
      Braius waves.

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